Creation continues

Yesterday while filling out some paperwork at the store I was shocked to discover I was writing the number 22.  Yesterday was the 22nd of December and so, rather obviously, this is the 23rd which means Christmas is only two days away.  And then, just as I was getting my head around the idea of only two days until Christmas and trying to combine that reality with what is left on my to-do list, I received a call from the person who is in charge of the temporary holiday stores.  "Your voice sounds like you're coming down with something." "No, I'm just tired" I replied.  "Well, it's almost over and we can go back to normal life" he said.  We chatted about the fact that the store has begun it's selling down process toward closing in early January and then I went back to responding to both the tasks of the store and the customers.

The store is nutty these days - it is just a couple days to Christmas - and so I didn't think again about the phone call.  Until last night when I pulled out the Advent meditations I have been reading and I understood why after the phone call I felt 'on tilt' even though I had not time to process what I was feeling.  I was 'on tilt' because deep in my heart what I know is that the point of Christmas is to remind us to not return to life as it was.  Oh sure, the hullabaloo will be over, but then again the hullabaloo is not the point of the Christmas story.  And for that matter, what I deeply believe - and why I was on tilt - is that Christmas isn't about celebrating what occurred two thousand years ago.  Christmas occurs over and over again with the birth of each and every human person who is born - a bit of God placed in the human Being so that creation may continue.  "I am the organ through which Spirit executes It's will and creative power."  


I took those words penned by Ralph Waldo Emerson as mine three years ago.  By 'taking them as mine' I mean that I engaged the meaning of the words - over and over in my journals, in the lighting of candles of intention and in meditation on my patio - until they became my path for living: the Spirit of God continues to create anew each day through each and every person - the 'work' of creating continues as the Spirit evokes - stirs into being - the gifts within myself.  God - or the Source of All Being - however you prefer to refer to the great Energy of All  begetting and becoming did not 'complete' creation in seven days: God began creation - and it is we who continue the becoming of what God began.

A really concise definition of 'creation' is to make or bring about.  The really short definition of 'continue' is to carry on: to proceed.  And to 'become' is to come into: to transform, evolve, grow and develop.  And so for creation to continue I cannot 'return' to what was no matter how comfortable or familiar or how much I loved what 'was' - to become or evolve and grow I must be willing to continue to move forward into what is not known.

The fullness of the Christmas story we tell is not yet known because creation continues each and every day with how I engage the gift of living I have been given.  And yesterday, when I felt 'on tilt' I was reminded that in order to make the gift of the story of Christmas real in my life I needed the quiet of last evening and early this morning to ask myself what is this story of creation that God began?  What am I being asked to carry on and bring about?  The answer is so simple that its simplicity is terrifying: I am asked to 'birth' God's love into the world through this imperfect - yet gifted - human vessel named Mary.  I am asked, to do the 'work' of discovering, engaging, using and therefore offering the gifts of myself to the world - no matter how imperfect I may perceive myself. I am asked to believe that if I am willing to live the same story as the characters of the Christmas story we tell, then creation will continue today in my life.

Creation continues when I am willing to be Mary and say 'yes' to that which disrupts my idea of who I am.  Creation continues when I am willing to be Joseph and struggle with the confusion of exploring what my role is in relation to the other people in my life.  Creation continues when I am willing to be Elizabeth and conceive, birth and sustain new life when I am 'past the time of conceiving.'  Creation continues when I am willing to offer strangers the best of what I have even though it may appear shabby.  Creation continues when I am willing to respond to angels telling me that I must leave what I was doing in order to carry a message whose meaning I may not fully understand. Creation continues when I, like the kings, am willing to leave the security of status and position in order to answer a call to not only bring and offer my gifts to newly born life, but also to bring the gift of reassurance - of naming - what has occurred.

As I finish writing my favorite words of this season are streaming through my mind: This is the Season when love bloomed bright and wild.  Had Mary been full of reason, there'd have been no room for the child.  We participate in the continuing of God's creation when we say 'yes' to the irrationality of love - the irrationality of love as it is today in my life.  In my life - in your life - is the love of God ready to be birthed into the world.